Peace Sinks Oil Prices, Ted Turner, & Best/Worst Entry-level Jobs

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Adam Rogers
May 07, 2026

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Axios reported Wednesday that the US and Iran were nearing a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and set a framework for nuclear negotiations — sending oil prices plunging and stocks surging. US crude fell as much as 15% before closing down 7% at $95 per barrel.
Gas prices had hit $4.54 per gallon nationwide just before the report, within 50 cents of the all-time high and up more than 50% since the war began. Bond yields fell sharply, with the average 30-year mortgage rate dropping to 6.44%. Iran's navy said "safe, stable passage" through the Strait of Hormuz would be ensured. Trump warned that if Iran didn't agree to his terms, "the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before."
A deal remains far from certain. Trump told the New York Post it was "too soon" to prepare for a signing, and zero ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Previous talks in Islamabad last month — led by Vance, Witkoff, and Kushner — collapsed when Trump said Iran's offer was "not good enough."

Ted Turner, the media mogul nicknamed "The Mouth of the South" who founded CNN and invented the 24-hour news cycle, died Wednesday at 87 after years living with Lewy body dementia.
Turner built a media empire starting with his father's billboard company and a weak UHF television station in Atlanta. He transformed the station into the TBS SuperStation, then launched CNN, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, and the Cartoon Network. CNN's breakthrough came during the Gulf War in 1991, when its correspondents stayed in Baghdad as other networks fled. Turner sold Turner Broadcasting to Time Warner for $7.3 billion in 1996, but was gradually pushed out, a decision he later called a mistake.
Beyond media, Turner owned the Atlanta Braves, accumulated more than 2 million acres of land, including the nation's largest bison herd, and donated $1 billion to UN charities in 1997. He was married three times, most famously to Jane Fonda.

The Musée d'Orsay in Paris opened its first gallery dedicated to Nazi-looted art, placing 13 unclaimed masterpieces on permanent display. The paintings are hung so visitors can read stamps and inventory marks that trace how each work moved from private homes into Nazi hands.
France has spent decades recovering looted art — of roughly 100,000 cultural objects taken during the Nazi occupation, about 60,000 were recovered. The 2,200 that remain unclaimed are held in trust in French national museums for heirs who may yet appear. Last month, the Orsay launched its first research unit dedicated to tracing rightful heirs file by file.
Among the works on display is a Degas owned by Jewish collector Fernand Ochsé, who was deported to Auschwitz and killed. Another, a Cézanne, was dismissed as a fake by a Louvre curator in the 1950s, but a recent study suggests it may be genuine.

A judge unsealed an alleged Epstein suicide note, written after a failed attempt weeks before his 2019 death, saying investigators had "found nothing" on him. (More)

Tennessee Republicans unveiled a congressional map that splits Memphis's majority-Black district, likely eliminating the state's only Democratic House seat. (More)

The FBI searched the office and cannabis business of Virginia Senate leader Louise Lucas on Wednesday as part of a public corruption investigation that began during the Biden administration. (More)

A US fighter jet disabled an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday after it tried to break an American naval blockade. (More)

Singapore will allow schools to cane male students who bully others, including online, as a last resort under new guidelines. (More)

North Korea rewrote its constitution to drop all mention of reunification with South Korea, formalizing Kim Jong Un's 2024 declaration that the South is a separate, hostile state. (More)

US stock markets closed higher on Wednesday (S&P +1.46%, Nasdaq +2.02%, Dow +1.24%) on reports that the US and Iran were nearing a peace agreement. (More)

Two California residents are suing Cento Fine Foods, claiming its "Certified San Marzano" canned tomatoes lack the authentic Italian designation the label implies, the second such lawsuit against the company. (More)

Nvidia and Corning will build three optical manufacturing facilities in North Carolina and Texas, creating 3,000 jobs and giving Nvidia the right to invest up to $3.2 billion in the glassmaker. (More)

Paris Saint-Germain reached the Champions League final by drawing 1-1 with Bayern Munich on Wednesday, advancing 6-5 on aggregate, and will face Arsenal in Budapest on May 30. (More)

Rachel Entrekin became the first woman to win the Cocodona 250 outright Wednesday, finishing the 250-mile Arizona ultramarathon in a record 56 hours, beating the entire men's and women's field. (More)

The Bear's fifth and final season premieres June 25 on FX and Hulu, with all eight episodes dropping at once. (More)

Imperial College London researchers developed a blood test that predicts whether patients will recover or deteriorate from illness, and how they'll respond to treatment, potentially reaching hospitals within five years. (More)

Half of the children surveyed in a UK study said age verification checks on adult websites are easy to beat, with some drawing fake mustaches on themselves to fool facial recognition tools. (More)

An HHS spokesperson said the FDA blocked the publication of several studies affirming the safety of COVID-19 and shingles vaccines, saying the conclusions outpaced the data. (More)

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